Ring on Your Finger
by mesmerizedbyceruleaneyes
Summary: Perfect Pair. Tezuka and Fuji bump into each other after ten years apart, and things have changed irreversibly between them. Not least is the fact that Fuji is wearing a ring on his left ring finger. Songfic; song is Yubiwa by Yamashita Tomohisa.


**Ring on Your Finger**

"Tezuka."

A voice, vaguely familiar, called my name. I turned. You stood there, half-recognized, half-stranger. Even though we stand in a crowded shopping street, I see your face with unreal clarity.

"Fuji."

It has been ten years since I saw you last. Everything has changed, and yet nothing has changed. Your soft brown hair, your serene smile… it is all as I remembered. But if nothing has changed, why do I feel as though I don't know you?

_~The sweet scent of a rose, that strong gaze_

_They fascinate me so, as I gather winter scenes of you_

_That innocent face of yours_

_Is exactly like a white canvas_

_But who is that shining ring on your finger from?~_

It was snowing, that day. I raised my umbrella, wordlessly inviting you to share it with me, just as we did so long ago. Your lips twitch, stretching just a little wider in a genuine smile, and you fall into step beside me. "How are you?" you ask.

We enter a nearby café and sit down. The events of the years are retold. After university in Germany and five years of pro tennis, I had joined a business company and risen steadily through the ranks since then. "Congratulations," you say. "As expected of you, Tezuka."

"What about you?" I want to know. I can see the small diamond solitaire glittering on your left ring finger. It irks me, somehow. "What have you been doing these past few years?"

"Oh, this and that," you reply airily. "You know, try out different things first before settling on one particular occupation. I think photography might be the best option, so far. The company is very accommodating; flexible. I think I'd suffocate if I worked in a place like yours."

You, the genius, the tensai who can do anything he puts his mind to, who does not suffer from a lack of choices but is instead baffled by the vast range of choices available. I knew what you were not saying – the many changes of courses in the university, the innumerable job-hops, as you fluttered from one idea to the next like a butterfly visiting one enticing flower after another.

_~You say that you aren't seeing anyone special_

_I want to believe you, but rhyme of this heart_

_If I said I liked you, it seems like everything would collapse_

_I wanted to say it, but it got stuck deep in my chest_

_How long may I keep watching over you?_

_I can't put up with these feelings any longer_

_If I told you, would we not be able to meet again?_

_I can't say that your ring is disturbing me~_

I gesture at your ring. "I see you've found someone."

"This?" You chuckle. "You could say so. Why, jealous? I always thought you'd be the first to settle down and start a family, you know."

"I want to ensure a stable income first. I'm still relatively new in the company." I look down, as though inspecting the contents of my coffee cup. I know that if I meet your eyes, you would see everything. You were always the only one who could read me so accurately, so deeply.

Your hands, whose touch I once knew intimately. Your pale skin, that I had once seen flush against my own. The many things we had done while young and curious. I wonder if I am the only one who remembers, now, while you have forgotten.

_~The precious memories I have made until now_

_I would throw them all away, but I want you_

_If I said I liked you, it seems like everything would collapse_

_I wanted to say it, but it got stuck deep in my chest_

_How long may I keep watching over you?_

_I can't put up with these feelings any longer_

_If I told you, would we not be able to meet again?_

_I can't say that your ring is disturbing me~_

We talk of meaningless things – our jobs, our former teammates and rivals, what they've been doing of late. I can't help but feel uncomfortable, for the unending chatter seems to me a mask for the fact that the golden time when we communicated without words is gone.

I ask myself, was it you who had changed, or me? Or was it simply the stark immovable mass of time, across which I knew you were, but could never be reached? Perhaps, when I wasn't paying attention, in the time when neither of us could be bothered to keep in contact with each other, we had unwittingly walked away from each other, the gulf growing with each passing year, month, day, second.

We sit here, less than three feet apart, chatting like friends of yore. But both of us know – I know, and I know you know – that the gap between us stretches, like an ocean, far into the horizon, and we each stand beyond either end, knowing that the other is opposite, but also knowing that there is no way to reach him. Friends of yore, lovers even, but now the memories are naught but ghosts of the past, haunting us, taunting us. Bonds are said to be represented by bright red threads; if we could see it now, what ties us together is an old, frayed string, its colour indistinguishable.

You glance at the clock on the wall of the café. "Goodness, is it already so late? I must get going. Sorry, Tezuka, but my girlfriend is waiting."

"It's okay," I hear myself say. "Go on. We can catch up some other time."

You look at me, your eyes open for the first time so far. Brilliant cerulean blue shards of ice that they are, they still draw me in, as inexorably as they did a decade ago.

_~The white snow falls from the sky this year too_

_Gently pouring down on my heart_

_When this snow begins to melt_

_Will I be able to tell you my feelings?_

_I know I am too weak to do it myself_

_You'll have to melt this snow for me~_

"Yes," you agree. "Some other time."

I walk out of the café with you, settling the bill at the counter near the exit. We step out into the four-o'clock dusk of winter. Already snow is piling up on the edges of the street.

You walk a few steps, then turn around. "Goodbye," you say softly, raising your hand in farewell.

Somehow, I can see the ring on your finger, even though you are wearing gloves. "Goodbye," I answer, inclining my head formally.

You smile slightly before turning back to your path. Slowly, you trudge away down the road. Whirling snowflakes obscure you from my sight; the darkness seems to close in, cloaking you in shadows. The silence grows ever larger between us even as the wind moans low in the background.

_~If I said I liked you, it seems like everything would collapse_

_I wanted to say it, but it got stuck deep in my chest_

_How long may I keep watching over you?_

_I can't put up with these feelings any longer_

_If I told you, would we not be able to meet again?_

_I can't say that your ring is disturbing me~_

Both of us know that there will not be a next time.

Turning to head in the opposite direction, I bid a final, silent farewell to the cherished memory of Fuji Syuusuke.

OWARI

**A/N: O.o okay, I really don't know why I wrote this. I should be getting on with that Gintama fic I promised Kid9535, not writing random angsty PoT oneshots, let alone songfics. I told myself I never would write a songfic when I first started on , and now look at me. –shoots self–**

**Oh well. My first try for Perfect Pair, albeit somewhat onesided. I've seen a large number of Fuji-angsting-for-Tezuka fics, so I thought I'd try to balance it out with a Tezuka-angsting-for-Fuji ficcy instead. Thus the birth of this fic. And I really like the song, not that it excuses the songfic. I hope it contributed to rather than detracted from the fic DX I wrote this whole thing in about an hour, so it probably needs more work, but I wanted to get it out of my system before inspiration died on me. :-X**

**The song here is **_**Yubiwa**_** by Yamashita Tomohisa of NEWS, JE, translated into English (obviously, for obvious reasons). Go listen to it! ^^ If you feel up to giving one after all the angst, of course.**

**Reviews are love =)**


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